How to make your family plead for a museum day

With only a few days in Athens, before we explore the rest of Greece, I had a long list of sites to see. We bought the combination Acropolis ticket that included access to the Acropolis and six other archeological sites, good over four days. We only have three days, here, and there were some non-archeological sites I planned to get in as well, so we had some work ahead of us.

Yesterday, at the Acropolis museum, we visited the first site, the Temple of Zeus, so, today, we had six more to see. Thankfully, ancient Athens was fairly compact, so we could walk it all. Right after breakfast, we climbed the hill to the Acropolis, making it to the entrance before it opened. Our plan, both to beat the crowds AND the heat. We did beat the crowds. With full water bottles, and a strong pace, we covered the theatre of Dionysus, Ancient agora, Roman agora, Hadirans Library, North slope of the Acropolis, and the Kerameikos. By lunch, we could wring out our clothing, and our feet were aching.

“Tomorrow,” I told them, “we are going to the National Archeological Museum, it has Air Conditioning!” The response was enthusiastic.